The director of the Uffizi Gallery of Florence suggests a restitution of religious works for churches

Restore to the churches the works of art that belong to them. It is the unexpected idea defended from the may 27, by Eike Schmidt, curator of the Uffizi Gallery of Florence. According to him, many religious works preserved by the museums in italy are expected to return to their place of origin, as reported by The Art Newspaper .

This project does not, however, out of nowhere. Since the crisis of the sars coronavirus, the gallery florentine thinks of a way to move a part of his collection, with the aim to extend the museum beyond its premises. And go to the churches the religious works from which they come is part of this new extension program.

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Exhibit a production of art in a museum has its benefits, says Eike Schmidt. Removed there are seventy-two years in the church of Santa Maria Novella, The Madonna Rucellai, painted by Duccio to 1285, is now part of the collection of the Uffizi Gallery. It throne currently to the sides of the two altarpieces of the Italian masters of the early Middle Ages, Cimabue and Giotto. A position that owes nothing to chance as it allows visitors to compare the works.

The sacred art is not designed with a purpose, artistic and religious

Eike Schmidt, curator of the Uffizi Gallery of Florence,

But for the director, the restitution of the painting to his home church would situate it in the context of its creation, and to give him its meaning. "The sacred art is not designed in an artistic goal, but religious, and in a framework that is just as much", he remarked to The Art Newspaper. Returning the work to the building for which it was created, the visitor will be able to better comprehend and understand, " says Schmidt.

The Madonna Rucellai , of Duccio (1285), has been withdrawn in 1948 of the church in florence Santa Maria Novella train station. It is now one of the masterpieces of the Uffizi Gallery. Gallery of OfficesÀ also read: "It is a miracle! Fly there are a half-century, a statue of brittany will find her chapel

according to the director of the institution, nearly a thousand religious works belong to the Soprintendenze, government agencies responsible for the art, architecture and archaeology in Italy. Most have been made into museums after the Second world War in order to preserve them. But there is no specific catalogue for the list, and access to them is complicated, even for academics.

A project "unrealistic"

From a legal point of view, the transfer of the works should not pose too many problems. In Italy, an institution dependent of the ministry of the Interior, the Bottom of the religious buildings (FEC), owns and manages the maintenance of approximately 900 catholic churches and religious buildings. Like most of the churches concerned by the restitution belong to the FEC, the productions religious would simply have to move from one public body to another. Moreover, the modern technology should help to ensure the conservation of the works in question.

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The proposal to Eike Schmidt has received a rather lukewarm reaction from the side of religious institutions. The director of the diocesan museum of sacred art of Florence, Monsignor Timothy Verdon has welcomed the idea as "positive" but "unrealistic", with the press agency Ansa. The archbishop of Florence, cardinal Giuseppe Betori, has admitted that the project deserved to be "taken into account and congratulated," but that every case of restitution "will have to be examined on its own merits".

The editorial team conseilleLes masterpieces by Caravaggio found their audiences in the Borghese Gallery of RomeQuel future for the major international Museums?In passing by Lorraine, on the footsteps of Joan of ArcSujetsItalieGalerie of officesFlorencepeintureAucun commentairePatrick Higginsle 07/06/2020 13:31

beautiful Madonna of Duccio, sienese painter of the Dugento, time of the Primitive.

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